AN AUDIT of US reconstruction spending in Iraq has uncovered spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars in cash, including bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who gambled away thousands and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without receipts. The audit, released yesterday by the US Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, describes a country in the months after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein awash with dollars, and a Wild West atmosphere where even multimillion-dollar contracts were paid for in cash. The findings come after a report last year by the inspector general which stated that nearly $9 billion of Iraq’s oil revenue disbursed by the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which governed Iraq until mid-2004, cannot be accounted for. The huge sums in cash were paid out with little or no supervision, and often without any paperwork, yesterday’s audit found. The report found problems with nearly 2,000 contracts worth $88.1 million... http://www.timesonline.co.uk

A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb blast south of Baghdad, while three Iraqi police died in a similar attack, officials said Thursday. The U.S. soldiers belonged to the Multi-National Division Baghdad and were targeted Wednesday, the military said in a statement. The name of the soldier who was killed is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification. At least 2,237 U.S. military personnel have died since the Iraq war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1542838

The Bush administration has strongly urged Palestinian leaders not to permit any Hamas members into the Palestinian cabinet, but yesterday's better-than-expected electoral showing by a group labeled a terrorist organization by the United States greatly complicates the administration's diplomacy in the region, U.S. officials said yesterday.Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, appears to have ridden a wave of popular disgust at the perceived corruption and incompetence of the ruling Fatah Party. Exit polls indicate Fatah will have only a slim edge over Hamas in the Palestinian Legislative Council, giving Hamas a strong claim to a role in the government.Fatah in theory may still be able to form a government that excludes Hamas -- formally the Islamic Resistance Movement -- but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has expressed hope that by bringing Hamas into the political process, it will become a partner in seeking a peace accord with Israel....http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012502100_pf.html

If Australian Prime Minister John Howard gets his way, citizens down under will soon face seven years in prison if they are convicted of “sedition.” That’s not entirely new—sedition laws have been on the country’s books for at least 40 years—but the proposed legislation more than doubles the penalty. It also expands the definition of criminal speech to include “assist[ing], by any means whatever, an organisation or country…at war with the Commonwealth, whether or not the existence of a state of war has been declared.”What comprises such “assistance,” and how on earth do you know when an organization is at “war with the Commonwealth” in the absence of a declaration to that effect? The answers are not clear, even after one very heated month of public debate and outcry....http://www.reason.com/0602/co.mw.the.shtml

French police who spent two years trying to identify a woman who was murdered by a blow to the head were relieved to discover the reason their efforts were failing: the woman died half a millennium ago.The skeleton of a woman in her 30s was found during an exceptionally low tide in December 2003 near the seaside Brittany town of Plouezoc'h. A long gash in the skull convinced investigators she was killed with a hatchet or other sharp implement.Police ploughed through missing persons' files to no avail. A theory that the woman was the wife of a Normandy doctor who disappeared with his family in a famous 1999 case was dismissed after DNA tests....http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2006-01-25-francemurder_x.htm?csp=34

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Wednesday disputed a Pentagon-commissioned study that warns the Army needs more troops for Iraq and Afghanistan, telling reporters the service is nowhere close to its breaking point.The study by Andrew Krepinevich, a military analyst and former Army officer, found that the Army's manpower needs for those conflicts "clearly exceed those available for the mission.""The forces called for proved insufficient to execute effectively stability operations of the type envisioned by the U.S. military," the study said. "A clear sign of this was the willingness of the U.S. command in Iraq to cede responsibilities for stability operations in several key cities to forces hostile to the interim government."Rumsfeld said he has not read the study but took issue with its conclusions....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/25/military.studies/index.html?section=cnn_world